The basic principles underlying fluctuation phenomena in thermodynamics have long been understood (for reviews see Kubo, 1957; Kubo, Matsuo & Kazuhiro 1973 Lax, 1960). Classical examples of how fluctuation analysis can provide an insight into the corpuscular nature of matter are the determination of Avogadro's number according to Einstein's theory of Brownian motion (see, e.g. Uhlenbeck & Ornstein, 1930; Kac, 1947) and the evaluation of the electronic charge from the shot noise in vacuum tubes (see Van der Ziel, 1970).

Several functions of the animal body can take place in cell or tissue cultures with almost unreduced efficiency and precision. Functions, where only one cell type is involved, often do so, but also some differentiation steps where interactions between two or more cell types are clearly needed can take place in tissue culture (Saxén et al. 1968).

Most immune responses require collaboration between two or more cell types (Claman, Chaperon & Triplett, 1966; Miller & Mitchell, 1968; Feldmann & Nossal 1972c). Some of them can be easily induced in vitro but others cannot. Even when antibody responses can be induced in vitro their intensity varies a great deal. With some antigens and under some circumstances a response in vitro can be nearly as strong as one in vivo. A crude comparison can be derived from responses in vitro and in vivo to the same antigen, conjugate of hapten NIP and pneumococcal polysaccharide type III (NIP-SIll, Nakamura, Ray & Mäkelä, 1973).

Most theories of determination or differentiation assume that embryonic cells differ from mature cells. Embryonic cells are thought to have metastable control mechanisms. These labile controls are believed to become progressively more stabilized as the cells differentiate. Zygote, blastula, neural plate, limb bud, somite, or ‘stem’ cells are conceived of as undifferentiated, totipotent, or multipotential cells. As such, these cells supposedly have available for activation a larger repertoire of phenotypic programmes than their progeny. A necessary corollary to this view is that the activation of one particular phenotypic programme out of the many available is a function of instructive exogenous inducing molecules.